It is more than a month since the earthquake devastated most of the western department and part of the southeastern part of Haiti. Since then, people have tried their utmost to live, survive and explain to themselves the reasons for their dilemma.

Hospice, in its quest to continue accompanying our brothers and sisters of Haiti, has with the collaboration of other organizations:

· With the IMC (International Medical Corp), we were able to find medicines to assist people. Over 1500 have been seen – from wound care to child healthcare to issues related to women’s health, HSJ was able to alleviate some of the pain of the people of Christ-Roi and its environments. We went to the camps to provide services before others could come.

· received over 100 blankets from IMC which we give to community members especially mothers with children that came to the clinic. We had 20 stoves to give away from IMC 2 weeks ago and yesterday we had 50 more dedicated to women in the nutrition program. We received half pallets of nutritional cookies which were distributed partly by members of community-based organizations. The children that came to the clinic also received the cookies.

· received 305 tents from CRS and 6 from IMC. On average we gave away 240 to individuals and families and the rest to groups like Sr. Yannick’s community

Food – US marines doing a good job of giving out food – almost everyone has received rice – but people standing on long lines for hours and it is difficult for many.

Many infections are popping up due to lack of sanitation. Garbage is mounting everywhere and the rats are multiplying. The rain is particularly worrisome, Max said when it rains people just find a building that looks like it won’t fall and has an overhang and just stand there until it stop.

Dennis and I will be traveling to Haiti on Monday, March 1 until Friday, March 5th. We hope to give you a first hand account during or at least after our visit.

Peace, Sue

We knew Max would not let too much time go by before addressing the situation of the children in the school program. Tonight he told us that about 100 of the 160 are still in Port-au-Prince. For those that have gone out to the provinces he plans on contacting the schools out there in hopes that offering the tuition for the rest of the school year will get them into a class. For those still in the city his plan is this:

1. He is gathering the littler ones – grades 1-6 – to draw pictures and do things to help them process their trauma. This will begin on Monday.
2. He will call the older students into smaller groups to talk with them about what’s happened, ask what they need and reassure them that their lives have not stopped – life will go on, they still have hope.
3. On March 1 he will bring the groups together in the yard and begin educational activities with the older ones assisting the younger ones.

This is how he will start. Max believes in education as the way forward for Haiti. He will NOT let these children languish. He knows that structure will help them to adjust to what has happened.

In other news, a new medical and support group will be arriving this weekend. Included in the group will be a psychiatrist who will work with the people in the neighborhood and try to give them strategies to help them feel some sense of control in their lives.

CRS has said they will be delivering 300 tents by the end of the week. Rainy season is fast approaching bringing many serious concerns.

I have not spoken much about Pharra, our Hospitality Director. I do know that she is one of the strongest people I know and is working with all of her strength for the people of Christ Roi. I hope to have a report from her soon. In her last short email she wrote, ” It is not all lost. Even with all that sorrow It is like a new beginning for Hospice, for Haiti. Hope we can”Carpe Diem”.”

And finally Max shared this analysis, update and story with us a couple of days ago:

…it is true that most of the items are still at the airport and for many reasons. The international community was shocked at the devastation and did not really know how to react. Haiti does not have the infrastructure to welcome the aid. At first it was stored at the industrial facility by the airport and this required so much clearance to get things out because it is controlled by the UN military personnel. Also there were territorial issues between the different big players like France, USA, Venezuela and others. The airport is under the direct control of authority of the US army (different branches) and there were complaints about who they let in.
The president’s operation is at a police precinct (Judiciary Police Dept), the parliament is at the police academy – the different ministries at some UN compound. The interface was very difficult.
By the way, World Food Program and the US army started delivering food and water and it seems to be alleviating people’s hunger. At the beginning we had 7 stations that required food assistance from us and they were serving tens of people. Today we only provide food to 2 stations and yet they don’t come every day like it was in the aftermath of the earthquake. We don’t buy as much drinking water as previously to give to people. The rainy season which is almost upon us presents the biggest challenge because most people are on the street and they don’t have tents. We had two close calls for rain so far. On Sunday and Monday it started to rain and you could hear the whole western part of Haiti screaming out to Jesus to stop the rain. The prayers were answered because although it drizzles, the pouring rain did not occur.

Thanks for your efforts and that of other members of the Hospice family. Hats off to you for all of your efforts to alleviate the suffering of the people of Haiti.

There is not much more I can add to that – Bless you all!

Sue

Hello Friends,

Spoke with Max tonight. Finally an organization -International Medical Corps (IMC) – brought nutritional “cookies” – LOTS of them – up to Hospice! Max distributed them to smaller groups in the neighborhood. One of the guys asked Max if he had any tents – Max did not. This guy only had 2, but gave Max 1. Max was very grateful – he finally has a 6 person guest room!

Some medical people came over from a place called Matthew 25 and saw over 100 children. When they had to close down and go back, there were still 95 mothers and children waiting to be seen. These medical people were part of a group that came on their own – not with any specific organization.

Another friend of Max’s brought some doctors over – they went out into the neighborhood and saw another 200 people.

So many who could barely do anything before now have the extra burden of missing a limb – making life all that much more difficult. All of this mostly from lack of any medical care in the fist several days. I asked Max if the people were at all able to make any sense of what had happened. He said that it’s hard to make sense out of non-sense, but they are trying. And they know they have to go on – they are still here for some reason.

I would also like to take this opportunity to name all of the wonderful people who made up the first medical team that went a couple of weeks ago. Inspired by Dawn Pinder, 3 year volunteer team member at Hospice who now lives in Florida, the group included David Chesire, Lucie Fontaine, Laura Ford, Leroy Himebauch, Joan Huffman, Sheldon Malcom, Rose Numa (Max’s wife), Tom Richert, Mark Schuller, Erin Snyder (also a previous Hospice volunteer), Bobi Wall, and Pam Stewart. Each was a FIRST RESPONDER in the truest sense of the word! Max said they cried when they left – feeling so attached to all the people they saw and wishing they could follow-up on each and every one of them.

Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. The enormity of this devestation is overwhelming.

Peace, Sue

Bobi Wall, Nurse Practioner from Jacksonville, and one of the team that just returned, has given permission to share her journal with you. I knew the members of the team would be experiencing difficulty, but after reading the journal I can only say how much gratitude is owed to this group for risking their own health, and really their own lives to help our sisters and brothers in Haiti.

Haiti Journal by Bobi Wall, NP

I found out Saturday, January 16 that I had been approved to go with a team of thirteen others to help with Haiti earthquake relief. I just had two days to pack and prepare for this unique and challenging experience. The others on the team were: an anthropologist from New York, an LSW, an MPH, two security people from Wisconsin, one PA from Colorado and another from Jacksonville, a first year resident from Brown University, one trauma surgeon from UF Shands, (better known to journal readers as Dr. Joan Huffman, Editor-in-Chief) one trauma psychologist, two nurses and me, the NP. Some of our team had been to Haiti before and had worked at clinics there. Some were new to the whole experience, like me. We worked on arranging medical supplies through Project Blessing before we drove on Tuesday, January 19 to Miami for a chartered flight to Haiti.
One week after the earthquake, we were on a flight headed to Haiti to provide much needed relief assistance. Flying in we could not see much due to dust clouds. As we landed, the airport scene was overwhelming. Military helicopters were everywhere. There were tents erected Iran, Mexico, and France and many Brazilian planes. We passed through the airport building and I noticed water all over the floor as well as cracks and sagging ceilings.
As we approached the other side of the building, hundreds of faces lined the perimeter of the fence. All of those people were shouting to get the job of helping arriving relief workers with their bags. Pallets of supplies lined the runway, and we lost our 10 boxes of medical supplies in the disorder. All we had left were the supplies we each brought, our surgical instruments and a saw for amputations.
We took a van to the clinic at Hospice St. Joseph. At first I thought the destruction seemed mild, but as we left the airport area I saw the destruction was rampant. When we got to St. Joseph’s, the courtyard where we were to set up and clinic and work was too small and it was filled with trees and a cracked cement slab. The clinic location had to change. We also changed our sleeping accommodations from an apartment floor to inflatable mats outside on the ground. There were too many aftershocks, so a clear space on the ground was safer.
The first day of clinic, we found some bags of meds. One PA stayed at the courtyard and set up a clinic while one surgical group went out in the surrounding area looking for those needing medical care. We had acquired 12 volunteers for first responders and translators at St. Joseph’s from the pool of their workers who all lost their homes. Many also lost family.
I was a part of the second team (an intern, a nurse, and some volunteers). We hiked about a mile. We found people who had numerous infected wounds and fractures. Someone had done a lot of these people a disservice and sutured the wounds closed. Much of my day was spent cutting sutures, debriding, cleaning and redressing wounds. There were lots of infected scalp wounds. I mobilized a volunteer to cut bamboo and make me some splints for fractures. We wrapped them with ace bandages, had canes made out of bamboo and sent the people on their way with ibuprofen. We did not send anyone away without giving them some medicine. We had to decrease the frequency of administration as our supplies were limited at this point. I also utilized the psychologist after I saw some folks who had great need of him. The temperature was in the 90’s to 100 during the heat of the day.
At one point an aftershock occurred and the people yelled,”shake, shake, shake” and ran into our one-room clinic. The people waiting to see us were endless. We saw over 200 at this clinic that day. One of the most frustrating parts was the flies crowding the wounds as we tried to treat them. At 3 p.m. we wrapped up our clinic, packed our supplies, and set off to return to Hospice St. Joseph. The route was uphill and considerably dusty through tent cities. I wore a mask and Vicks to filter the dust as well as the odor of decay.
As I climbed I began to wheeze considerably. Taking off the mask did not help. Finally I was given a chair at one of the tent camps and I sat and wheezed while the intern ran to try to retrieve an inhaler. At one point I thought I might be left here until after sunset to try to walk again. Unfortunately, we had no inhalers, which as the days went on, was an absolute essential for a lot of the children. The van made it part way, and I was able to scramble to its safety after a brief rest.
We rethought day two as the surgical team did not see as many people. Dr. Huffman did amputate two fingers from a lady, using only local anesthetic. We combined the two teams and headed en masse to our original site. Now we had two tent coverings. This freed us up to concentrate more in each of our own areas and to consult quickly with one another. We started to see more children with headaches and dehydration. We had rehydration packs for children and children’s Tylenol. Both days clinic was cut short as we ran out of our own water supply. It was hard to keep track of our supplies and the water kept disappearing.
The team members started to get chills, weakness and headaches. We all avoided diarrhea by taking 1 Cipro 500mg every day. We also took a daily acidophilus and malranone to prevent malaria. I got some intense mosquito bites sleeping in the open at night. We did have coils and clip on fans with repellent which helped but did not eliminate mosquitoes.
And the end of the second day of clinic we got a ride back to the hospice. When we arrived, we were welcomed with a Haitian meal of pasta and Creole sauce, cole slaw with vinegar dressing, plantains, tomatoes, and lettuce. Most people were eating now, and we paid them to help their economy, to cook for us. Yes we ate right along with them. They cleaned their vegetables with potable water and two drops of Clorox which is a standard for them.
This night turned out to be more troubling than most. We were blessed with a couple nite lites because of a revived generator which made sleep easier. The team all slept on the cement slab of ground and the Haitian volunteers also on the ground on the other side of the cement steps. Our dog, a resident mutt, chased rats away at night and the cat chased bugs.
The next day was full and we were very tired. The clinic changed to another site. We passed a much worse hit area of the city just beyond a soccer field and another massive tent city into a gated courtyard run by the sisters of Mother Theresa’s group. Stench of death was much stronger in this area. En route to this area we passed a canal with minimal water filled with rubbish which would serve as a reservoir for multiple diseases when the rains came. Large numbers of children and families came to the clinic. Today’s complaints, in addition to the ubiquitous wounds, were cough, fever, and stomach aches. Many people had not eaten in days. They had water but not much. Dust was everywhere. A lot of people also complained they were unable to sleep. Every day there were aftershocks. We had to be more creative in dealing with these complaints. Babies were listless. We started multiple IVs. On one patient we could not get an IV started so I did the old hypodermaclysis. I also saw a younger lady that had lost continence, so I referred her to Dr. Huffman and the lady was transported to the MASH hospital.
Today we began to feel more overwhelmed. The needs were so immense just for the basics of food and water. If we had those they would relieve some of the headaches and stomach aches. We also needed masks to filter dust. I am beginning to feel like I cannot make a difference.
Saturday evening, January 23, we heard Haitians singing hymns until late in the night. Even with all that has happened to them, they are steadfast in their faith. On Sunday we decided to take a break as most Haitians will not come to clinic and will observe the Sabbath instead. But even today a few needy people straggled in to the clinic. We had a girl come with an external fixator on one leg, it needed debrided, and the bone was showing through. So several of us helped Dr. Huffman debride it and cover. We only had local anesthetic, so during the procedure the girl passed out. I was holding her head and as I turned to look behind me, I was inches from the edge of a cement cliff. We all got through today.
There were a couple more days the same as before and then we mobilized the whole team and left Haitian first responders to manage the base clinic. Today we found out the newborn baby who had been in our clinic a few times, died. We are all saddened.
Our last night arrives, so we must organize some of the inventory for the next group arriving to provide medical relief. They should be in by the end of the week. We pack little of our own items and leave most of what we brought for the Haitian people.
As we return to the airport on January 26, we see the airport building is no longer open. We were given pills to deworm us before we left. The team got split up in the C17 airplane. We slept the 2-hour flight to Orlando. The Red Cross was waiting to help us. I got a tangerine from them…sooo good. We rented a car and drove to Jacksonville.
After returning, I was still on hyper alert. Diarrhea set in and my thoughts are disorganized. I cannot bring myself to download pictures yet. Some moments I want to sob. I left behind new Haitian friends. Some moments I just wish I could purge my body of this tragedy, but I make plans to return to work and my life. Yet, I am not ready or able to process all that happened to me in Haiti.